Thoughts on Cunningham Park ES in Vienna?

babypuplove

We are currently looking at homes in Vienna and Great Falls (our house sold quickly, so we're scrambling to find a new one!).  We like a home we visited in Vienna, but it's in the CPES area, and we haven't heard positive things about that school.  The MS and HS are Thoreau and Madison, which are great, and to me, that's much more important, but I also don't want to send my kids to a terrible ES. As a teacher, I know that comparing test scores, etc, will only get you so far.  I'm looking for anyone personal experience.  

TIA for any help you can provide!

earlysun

All FCPS schools are "good". I'm a little biased since I work in the system.

 That being said, CPES pulls from some rougher apartment complexes in addition to the single family homes in the neighborhood, so you're going to see lower test scores due to English Language Learners and poverty.

If you buy in that neighborhood, your children will get a more "balanced" education (socially at least) than they'd get in other Vienna elementary schools. To me, that's a plus. The world is not white and upper middle class.

vml14

We looked in that neighborhood a bit when we were looking about a year ago, and ultimately decided that a bad ES (which it seems CPES is) was a deal breaker for us.  I used to teach at an ES very close to CP, and asked my principal about CP, and in her own politically correct way told me that it would not be a school I'd be interested in. 

Our thinking was that we were sure our children would attend the ES, and that it was unlikely that it would be any different in the next few years before my kids attended.  But even with our plan to stay in the next house for the long haul, a lot could change in the 10+ years before my kids ever got to the better MS/HS.

Good luck!  And, congrats on the house sale.  Our sold in fall 2010 in 3 days, and also put us into high gear in trying to buy a new house.  It's so stressful!